Trial and Error
by monitorscreen
Summary: One can never truly prove a theory, only continuously failing to disprove it. Yaoi. [InuiTezuka]


**Title:** Trial and Error  
**Author:** monitorscreen  
**Fandom:** Prince of Tennis  
**Pairing:** Inui/Tezuka  
**Rating:** PG13  
**Word count:** 724  
**Disclaimer:** Prince of Tennis is the creation of Konomi Takeshi, not mine.  
**Summary:** One can never truly prove a theory, only continuously failing to disprove it.  
**Author's notes:** Written for LJ comm **Spring Kinkfest**, prompt: _July 19 - #48. Prince of Tennis, Inui/Tezuka: Confrontation - "We never change, do we? We never learned to leave."_ I worked a lot of laboratory scenes in there... though not much in the way of kink.

* * *

**Trial and Error**

by monitor screen

-o-

"This isn't working," Inui said, long limbs still entwined with his, sweat slick between their bodies. Tezuka did not respond; Inui could be referring to something as mundane as the chemical analysis they were working on that morning, or as distant as some foreign policy, or as potentially threatening as the architectural design of their apartment building - there was no way to know until Inui further elaborated. So Tezuka waited.

After a while Inui spoke again, "This isn't working. I think we should stay away from each other and review our priorities."

Tezuka paused, mentally repeating the line to make sure he had understood correctly, and then calmly stated, "My priorities are clear."

Inui slid his arms off and sat up on the bed. "You cannot be sure. You only _think_ you know what you want, because you are used to wanting them; they're not necessarily what you really desire, deep inside your heart."

Tezuka rolled onto his back to watch the hazy form of Inui. Inui was leaning against the wall, elbows propped on his raised knees, finger ruffling through spiky black hair. Without his ever-present glasses, this man in front of Tezuka looked paradoxically unfamiliar. Tezuka thought about the inspiring scientist he worked with daily, the steadfast friend over cafeteria table, and the gentle lover in his bed; none of them seemed to resemble this not-quite stranger by his side. He thought, _maybe Inui is right_.

When Inui got up, dressed and left without another word, Tezuka did not try to stop him.

----------

The next chance they saw each other was in the lab. Inui did not say anything, so Tezuka just nodded to his partner and picked up where they left it the day before. Without prior agreement, they each took a sample and ran experiments at the furthest ends of the sterile room. Tezuka found the silence, punctuated only with the soft clicks of test tubes and beakers, oddly soothing. It was not until he made hypotheses on the observed result to the empty air behind him that he realised nothing was the same anymore.

When lunchtime came, Tezuka lingered at the door, words poised on his tongue; but eventually he exited without alerting the hunching figure at the electronic microscope.

----------

Tezuka did not know when Inui left. He was alone in the brightly lit facility when he was done with the last set of titration for this particular sample. The area around the microscope was cleaned, and a file of notes was placed on the central bench. Tezuka tidied up his side of the laboratory, then sat down to organise his findings, comparing with Inui's records as he went. It was well past his usual off time when he shut everything down for the night.

The walk back to the dormitory was surprisingly dark when trekked alone.

----------

The next day when Tezuka returned to the lab to find Inui nodding as he browsed through Tezuka's theories he felt a sudden surge of anger. "This isn't accomplishing anything," he blurted before he remembered _they are supposed to avoid contact_.

"But I think this is quite promising..." Inui muttered, before doing a double take, and looked up with a carefully blank face. Somehow Tezuka found the deliberate neutrality more offending than any other reactions he might have anticipated of Inui.

He walked up to his lab partner, "What we're doing, it's pointless. One can never truly prove a theory, only continuously failing to disprove it." Tezuka pulled the file away, "I haven't find any evidence of success yet."

Inui bowed his head, contemplating. "And if the theory isn't disproved, we continue to assume it is true," he catch Tezuka's gaze with a glint in his eyes, "and construct experiments based on that assumption." A hand clasped the file, tugging it back. "But assumptions can be wrong."

"We will have to take the risk; experiments are worthless with too many variables."

Silence. And then a quiet "... True." Inui hovered near for a moment, not touching but leaning close, and Tezuka could feel his heartbeat quickened. He was going to say something when the file was taken from him, and Inui flipped to a table, snapping right back into business mode, "Did you notice this abnormality? I have some tests I want to run..."

Some things never changed.

-o-


End file.
